Baby found on the street with homeless mother ‘never took breath,’ medical examiner says

UPDATE on the Frozen Baby in Portland, Oregon!

[a few quotes from the article – with our thoughts in brackets]

“The state medical examiner confirmed Tuesday that a baby boy found with his homeless mother on Portland’s streets last week died in a stillborn birth and not of exposure to freezing temperatures.”

“Officers responded to a call about 6 a.m. Jan. 9 and found a woman near Southeast 91st Avenue and Powell Boulevard with a newborn, Police Chief Mike Marshman said.”

“This has been an unprecedented year for exposure deaths in Portland – three men and one woman have died since Jan 1…”

“Multnomah County doesn’t keep statistics on homeless pregnancies or babies born on the street. Eighty-eight people died on the street in 2015 Multnomah County overall, mostly from either drugs and alcohol or diseases.” [note: they added drugs/alcohol, but wont clarify percentages – they imply the worse, down play the other – it’s a known reporters/editors trick]

“The cause of a stillbirth could be tied to many things: the mother’s lack of prenatal care and lifestyle living on the streets, Gunson said. The mother, who police said suffers from mental illness, hasn’t been able to share much information about what occurred. [again, they say “Lifestyle” as if being poor, mentally ill and homeless is some sort of choice the poor woman and now dead child planned to embark upon]

[this part is common and sad, they’re going to cause doubt to distract us from finding fault with a system that habitually fails the most desperate of us] “People on the scene when the baby was first discovered described the baby as very cold but breathing, according to police reports cited by Willamette Week, which first reported the boy’s death. Two doctors at OHSU who worked on the baby disputed the stillbirth finding, the publication said.

OHSU declined comment, citing patient confidentiality, and police haven’t responded to a request for the records from The Oregonian/OregonLive for their reports.”

— according to this article, they aren’t pressing charges against this poor mother, but we’ve read other articles that said the opposite. This article and news source was given to us by homeless advocates and street people in the area. We’re still attempting to speak with someone that knew this woman personally. We Will Keep You updated, if you’re interested. ~ gnat